The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers part 4 potx

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11Chapter 1Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
Continued
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:
Probably the most popular method for
sorting your images is to rate them using
Mini Bridge’s 1- to 5-star rating system
(with 5 being your best images). That being
said, I’m going to try to convince you to
try a rating system that is faster and more
efficient. Let’s start by finding the bad
ones. When you see a photo that is really
bad (way out of focus, the flash didn’t fire,
the subject’s eyes are closed, etc.), press
Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Delete) to mark
that photo as a Reject. The word Reject
appears in red in the bottom-left after you
do this in Full Screen Preview mode, below
the photo in Review mode, and below the
thumbnail, as well (shown circled here in
red). It doesn’t delete them; it just marks
‘em as Rejects. Note: Mini Bridge displays
your Rejects right alongside your other
photos, but if you don’t want to see your
Rejects, you can hide them by going under
the Select icon’s pop-up menu and choos-
ing Show Reject Files (as shown here).
Step Four:
When you see a “keeper” (a shot you may
want to print, or show to the client, etc.),

then you’ll press Command-5 (PC: Ctrl-5)
to mark that photo as a 5-star image,
and this star rating will appear below the
selected photo (shown circled here in red).
So that’s the drill—move through your
photos and when you see a real keeper,
press Command-5, and when you see a
totally messed up photo, press Option-
Delete to mark it as a Reject. For all the
rest of the photos, you do absolutely noth-
ing. So, why not use the entire star rating
system? Because it takes way, way too long
(I’ll explain why on the next page).
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12
Chapter 1 Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Five:
Here’s why I don’t recommend using
the entire star rating system: What are
you going to do with your 2-star images?
They’re not bad enough to delete, so we
keep ‘em, right? What about your 3-star
ones? The client won’t see these either,
but we keep ‘em. What about your 4-star
photos (the ones that weren’t quite good
enough to be five stars)? We keep them,
too. See where I’m going? Why waste your
valuable time deciding if a photo is a

2- or a 3- or a 4-star, if all you’re going
to do is keep ‘em anyway? The only shots
we really care about are the ones we want
off our computer (they’re messed up and
just wasting disk space) and our best shots
from that shoot. So, once you’ve gone
through and ranked them, let’s get rid
of the dogs. Click-and-hold on the Filter
Items by Rating icon at the top right of
the Content pod (it looks like a funnel)
and choose Show Rejected Items Only
(as shown here) to see just the Rejects.
Step Six:
Now Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on
all the Rejects, then press the Spacebar
to open them in Full Screen Preview,
and press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-
Delete) on each one to move them to
your Trash (PC: Recycle Bin). Next, go
under the Filter Items by Rating icon’s
pop-up menu again, but this time
choose Show 5 Stars (as shown here)
to filter things down so just your keep-
ers—your 5-star images—are visible
in Mini Bridge.
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13Chapter 1Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Seven:

At this point, we want to set things up
so that, in the future, these 5-star photos
are just one click away at any time, and
we do that using collections (which are
stored in Big Bridge). Here’s how it works:
Select all your 5-star photos, then enter
Review mode. You’ll see a button in the
bottom-right corner (to the left of the
X [Close] button, and shown circled here
in red). Click it, and it brings up a dialog
where you can name and save your
images to a collection. Type in “5-Star
Guitars” and click the Save button.
TIP: Removing Ratings and
Reject Labels
To re move a ph oto ’s st ar r atin g , ju st c lic k
on the photo, then press Command-0
(zero; PC: Ctrl-0). You can use the same
shortcut to remove the Reject label.
Step Eight:
When you click that Save button, a
collection of just these photos is saved.
Now these best-of-that-shoot photos
will always be just one click away—just
click on the Panel View icon (the center
icon at the top right of Mini Bridge—
shown circled here in red) and choose
Navigation Pod from the pop-up
menu to make the Navigation pod
visible again. Then, on the far left of

the Navigation pod, click on Collec-
tions, then click on the 5-Star Guitars
collection (as shown here), and just
that shoot’s 5-star photos appear.
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14
Chapter 1 Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step One:
If you click on the magnifying glass icon
at the top-right corner of the Mini Bridge
panel, a search dialog appears where you
have three different choices in the pop-up
menu for how to search: (1) You can use
your computer’s built-in search to search
your entire computer (which is surpris-
ingly handy), or (2) just the current folder.
Or (3), you can use a standard Bridge
search (which searches just the filename
and any embedded keywords) to narrow
things down in just your current folder.
Step Two:
In the image shown in Step One, I typed
in the keyword “tremolo” and chose the
basic Bridge search of the current folder,
and Mini Bridge displayed the results of
this keyword search, which in this case
was just two images with a clear view
of the entire tremolo (as seen here). To

leave the search results and return to
your previous folder of images, just click
the Back Button (the left arrow) at the
top-left corner of the Mini Bridge panel.
Mini Bridge has a search function that lets you either use your computer’s
built-in search (like the Mac’s Spotlight search or Windows Search), or you
can use Bridge’s Advanced Search, which has searching power more like
the one in Big Bridge. Here’s how it works:
Finding
Your Photos
by Searching
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15Chapter 1Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:
If you want more search control, then
click the Bridge Advanced Search button
at the bottom of the search dialog, and
it brings up the Find dialog you see here.
You choose where it’s going to search
from the Source Look In pop-up menu up
top (by default, it includes your Pictures
folder, any favorite locations you’ve saved
in Big Bridge, and your desktop). You
choose what to search for using the
Criteria pop-up menus, and the best way
to see what you can search for is simply
to click-and-hold on the first pop-up
menu (it’s a pretty darn amazing list,

including searching through all the EXIF
data embedded into your photo at the
moment you took the shot).
Step Four:
When you click Find, the results of your
search are displayed in the Content panel
of Big Bridge itself (as seen here) and you
can open any of the images directly into
Photoshop (just double-click on them)
or Camera Raw (if they’re RAW images,
they’ll automatically open in Camera
Raw first. If not, you can open JPEG or
TIFF images in Camera Raw by clicking
on them, then pressing Command-R
[PC: Ctrl-R]. Easy to remember—just
think “R” for “RAW”).
TIP: Deleting Photos in Mini Bridge
You can delete photos in Mini Bridge
by going into Full Screen Preview mode
and pressing Delete (Mac or PC). You’ll
get a dialog asking if you want to re-
ject the file or delete it. If you press
Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Delete),
it automatically puts it in the Trash
(PC: Recycle Bin) and moves on to the
next image.
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16
Chapter 1 Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step One:
Here’s the default look for Mini Bridge,
which pretty much makes my case
(above) for why I needed to change the
background colors, and make it feel
more like a photographer’s application
than a business one. To customize the
look of your Mini Bridge, go to the fly-
out menu at the very top-right corner
of the Mini Bridge panel, and choose
Settings (as shown here). When the
Settings info appears, click on Appear-
ance to make those controls visible.
Step Two:
When the Appearance controls appear,
drag the User Interface Brightness slider
quite a bit to the right, which gives the
main panel interface and Navigation pod
a nice dark gray look, as shown here at
the bottom. At this point, the Content
and Preview pods still have that light gray
background behind them, and to change
that you drag the Image Backdrop slider
quite a bit to the right, as well (I usually
want some contrast between the user
interface and the background, so I usually
make the background darker—or even
black—by dragging way to the right).
That’s it—now just hit the Back button

(the left arrow up top) twice and your
new colors are in place.
To me, the default colors of Mini Bridge are just plain boring (I mean, how
exciting is light gray?). To me, the default colors make it feel more like a boring
business tool, and less like a photographer’s tool, which is why the first thing
I did when I launched Mini Bridge was to search around to find out how to
customize the background colors. Here’s how you can customize yours:
Customizing
the Look of
Mini Bridge
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Syncing Mini Bridge
with Big Bridge
If you want to sync Adobe Bridge
(I call it “Big Bridge”) and Mini Bridge
(so they both display the same images
at the same time), start in Mini Bridge
and click the Go to Adobe Bridge
icon at the top right of the panel. This
launches Big Bridge (or sends you over
there if it’s already up and running),
where you’ll need to click the Return
to Adobe Photoshop icon (it’s a little
boomerang) near the top left of the
window, and it boomerangs you back
to Photoshop. Now, Mini Bridge and
Big Bridge will both display the same
folder of images. To turn off the sync-
ing, press Command-Option-O (PC:

Ctrl-Alt-O) to switch applications
and choose a new folder, or just
change applications using the Dock
(on a Mac) or the taskbar (on a PC).
Seeing a Larger Preview
in Mini Bridge
When you’re looking at thumbnails in
Mini Bridge, and you want to see a larger
preview of your currently selected image
(but not a full-screen preview), press
Shift-Spacebar, and Mini Bridge displays
that selected image as large as possible
within the Preview pod (this one’s hand-
ier than it sounds, so give it a quick try).
Just click the Close button in the bottom
right to close it.
Stop the Scrolling Madness
If you don’t like scrolling through tons
of images in Mini Bridge, try this instead:
go down to Mini Bridge’s View icon’s
pop-up menu (in the bottom right of
the panel), and choose Show Items in
Pages. Now, it will display as many
thumbnails as it can fit in the Content
pod at the size it’s at, but to see the
rest of the photos in this folder, you
don’t scroll, you use the left/right arrow
buttons at the bottom right of the
pod. Each time you click, a new page
of thumbnails appears. Give this one

a try and see how you like it (it works
better than it sounds).
Seeing Just the Thumbnails Alone
When I’m searching for just the right
image, I want my distractions at a mini-
mum, and if that sounds like you, try
choosing Show Thumbnail Only from
the View icon’s pop-up menu in the bot-
tom-right corner of the Mini Bridge panel.
That hides the file’s name, any star ratings,
color labels, or any other distracting stuff,
so you can focus on the images.
17Chapter 1Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Photoshop Killer Tips
Continued
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See DSLR Videos in Mini Bridge
If you imported HD video you shot with
your DSLR, believe it or not, you can
actually preview the video using Mini
Bridge. Just click on the thumbnail for
your video clip, then press the Spacebar
and your video plays full screen.
Dragging-and-Dropping Right
from Mini Bridge
If you already have a document open
in Photoshop, you can drag-and-drop
images directly from Mini Bridge right

into that document and it appears as
a Smart Object (not too shabby!). If
the photo is in RAW format, it opens
in Camera Raw first (for any last min-
ute tweaking), but then opens when
you click OK. But my favorite drag-and-
drop tip is this: You don’t have to have
a document already open. Just drag-
and-drop your image from Mini Bridge
right into the center area where your
document would normally be, and
it opens your photo in a new image
window. You gotta try this! (If you’re
using a Mac, though, you need to have
Application Frame turned on [under
the Window menu] for this to work.
If you don’t, your image will just copy
to your desktop.)
Review Mode Time Saver
I mentioned earlier in the chapter that
if you’re in Mini Bridge’s Review mode
(see page 8) and you find an image
you want to work on, you can press R
to open the image in Camera Raw
(it doesn’t matter whether it’s a RAW
image, a JPEG, or a TIFF), and if you
want to open a JPEG, TIFF, or even a
PSD from Review mode directly into
Photoshop, you can press O, but you
can also Right-click on the image and

choose Open from the pop-up menu,
and it opens right up. You can also do
other things from this pop-up menu,
like add a color label to your image, or
add a star rating, or rotate the file.
Getting to Mini Bridge’s
Preferences
There are a few options for how Mini
Bridge works (and looks), and you get to
these by clicking on the Home Page icon
at the top left of the Mini Bridge panel,
then clicking on the Settings icon. Here,
you can choose your colors for Mini
Bridge (under the Appearance settings),
and you can choose how Mini Bridge
interacts with Big Bridge there, as well
(under the Bridge Launching settings),
or reset your settings.
Hidden Slide Show Shortcuts
If you select a bunch of images in
Mini Bridge, and choose Slideshow
from the Preview icon’s pop-up menu
(at the bottom right of the panel), you
get a full-screen, auto-advancing slide
show complete with transitions. But
there are some hidden shortcuts you
can use while it’s running that are
pretty handy. For example: Press the
R key to pause the slide show and
open the current photo in Camera

Raw (just press the Spacebar to re-
sume the slide show once you’re done
in Camera Raw); press the Period key
to add a 1-star rating, press it twice to
add a 2-star rating, and so on; press
the Left Bracket key to rotate coun-
terclockwise, and the Right Bracket
key to rotate clockwise; press the L
key to bring up the Slideshow Options
dialog (shown here); and press the
18
Chapter 1 Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Photoshop Killer Tips
Download from www.wowebook.com
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+ (plus sign) key to zoom in, and the
– (minus sign) key to zoom out. The
numbers 1–5 also add star ratings, and
6–9 add color labels. Lastly, just press
the H key to get a list of the slide
show shortcuts.
The Path Bar Is Live
The Path Bar that shows the path to the
current folder you’re viewing isn’t just
for looks—it’s live—meaning you can
click on any of the folders in the path
and jump to that folder.
Hide the Preview Panel
Okay, technically, Adobe calls them

pods (not panels), but either way, there’s
not much reason to have the Preview
pod visible in Mini Bridge, because it
just takes up space. If you want to see
an image preview, use the tip I showed
you earlier—press Shift-Spacebar and
it temporarily shows your image in the
Preview pod, or you can just hit the
Spacebar itself and see your image pre-
viewed full screen. So, in short, uncheck
Preview Pod from the Panel View icon’s
pop-up menu (the center icon at the
top right of the panel) and use the
room you save for something else.
Adding Favorites to
Mini Bridge
So, how do you get your favorite,
most-used folders added to Mini
Bridge’s Navigation pod, so they’re
just one click away? Click the Go to
Adobe Bridge icon at the top of the
panel to jump to Big Bridge, then in
the Folders panel (at the top left of
the window), find the folder you want
to make a favorite. Once you find
it, Right-click on it and choose Add
to Favorites from the pop-up menu,
then click the Return to Adobe Photo-
shop icon (the boomerang icon in the
top left of the window) to jump back

to Photoshop. Now, you’ll see that
folder added to your Favorites list in
Mini Bridge.
19Chapter 1Using Photoshop CS5’s Mini Bridge
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Photoshop Killer Tips
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Photo by Scott Kelby Exposure: 1/640 sec | Focal Length: 10.5mm | Aperture Value: ƒ/2.8
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